By James G. Muhammad Contributing Editor @jgm3000
DETROIT—A crowd of 14,000 people jumped to their feet with a rousing applause at the sight of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan entering the stage at the TCF Center for his keynote address to culminate the four-day weekend of activities during the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day 2020, Feb. 21-23.
Dressed in an olive-green suit, green bow tie and a green pocket square, a beaming Minister greeted dignitaries on stage and bowed to the excited audience.
Min. Louis Farrakhan
He expressed joy at seeing the packed auditorium and to know that even more were watching the video feed in three overflow rooms.
He then launched into a three-and-one-half hour message he described as having good news for Black and oppressed people and warning to President Trump and the government of America, despite standing with torn meniscus ligaments in both knees.
Chaos and confusion gripped America during the recent hearings of President Donald Trump, puzzling the nations of the earth as they watched a great nation going to hell under a president who wants to be a king, the Minister said.
Speaking from the city where the NOI was founded 90 years ago, Min. Farrakhan said the deterioration of the moral fiber of America was on full display as lies and deceit were spun to give cover for the president to be acquitted.
“You are opting to be a part of that which is unraveling right in front of your eyes,” he said to Black people who put their hopes in America to give justice to the children of their former slaves.
“I was looking at America not at her finest level. I watched the high level of deceit. I watched brilliant lawyers … none willing to agree with the truth,” he said of the hearings. “I watched the Bible being fulfilled: If Satan casts out Satan, how then can his kingdom stand.
“Satan is having a field day with America and evil has been made fair seeming,” the Minister said.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz deceitfully gave cover for the Senate to acquit President Trump by admitting that Mr. Trump committed the acts he was accused of, but they didn’t rise to a level to be removed from office, the Minister said.
In his message titled, “The Unraveling of a Great Nation,” Min. Farrakhan chastised presidents for taking young people into war because they covet the oil and other natural resources in those countries. He also rebuked Mr. Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for murdering foreign leaders they did not like, citing Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani, killed by Trump in a drone attack, and Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, at the behest of Mrs. Clinton.
President Trump said Gen. Soleimani killed a lot of Americans, so he killed him, the Minister said. “Where were the men he killed? He killed them in Iraq. What the hell were you doing in Iraq?” he asked.
The Minister noted that although the Founding Fathers had lofty goals, “the nation called America was doomed from its inception” because it was built on a foundation of lies. He cited the Declaration of Independence as evidence.
The promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and the self-evident truths of “We the people” didn’t include the enslaved Africans nor the decimated Native Americans, he said. It didn’t even include White women who were denied the right to vote for a century, he said.
He also cited the government’s desire to unravel the burgeoning Nation of Islam from its inception.
“What has America’s promise been to us?” he asked. “Having the pursuit of happiness means you create the means of self-sufficiency. A few (Black people) doing good has not benefitted the masses of our people.
“When you have good words, you have to have a good heart to give life to those good words,” he said to the American government.
The popular Minister said the Founding Fathers knew they would face God’s judgment one day. He displayed the original Seal of the United States with a coat of arms recognizing immigrants from six European countries, a woman holding the scales of justice and the initials of the 13 original colonies.
On the back were images of Moses and the Children of Israel and Pharaoh with his army drowning in the Red Sea.
“They knew judgment was coming to America … that one day they would have to pay for what they did to the Native Americans, to the slaves. God has never favored the undertakings of slavery, genocide and colonialism,” he said.
At the end of the time of Caucasian rule, God comes to set up a new heaven and a new earth, Min. Farrakhan said. A new heaven means a new spiritual power and a new earth indicates a new political power, he explained.
The Muslim minister also offered President Trump a way to delay judgement.
“Mr. Trump, you are written in the scriptures in many places. I am too,” he said. “I’m inviting you to sit down and talk because I have a message for you from God.”
The King of Babylon once had a heart of a human being and God gave him the heart of a beast. After a while the king’s heart began to turn human again, he said.
“Suppose I’m talking to that Nebuchadnezzar?” he asked. “I can come to you like Jonah. America, Mr. President, needs to repent for what you have done.
“If Mr. Trump realizes that the penalty of rejection is death of the nation, then let’s make a deal. You know the art of the deal,” he said.
U.S. gov’t targets Nation of Islam
Saviours’ Day is the annual celebration of the birth of Master Fard Muhammad, the long-awaited Mahdi of the Muslims and the Messiah of the Christian faith.
He was born on Feb. 26, 1877 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and came to North America with the sole purpose of raising the Black man and woman of America from mental and spiritual death, fulfilling the scriptures that God would come for a people in bondage for 400 years and He would judge that nation.
After teaching his top student, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, for a little over three years, Master Fard Muhammad left the work of resurrection to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad worked for 40 years absent his teacher and built the most productive group of Black people in America and impacted the movement for Black liberation around the world, even though the U.S. Government sought to destroy it every step of the way.
Forty-two years ago, the world thought the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was dead, Min. Farrakhan said of his teacher. They tried to bury my teacher, not only in a grave but to destroy his works that the name of the Nation of Islam would no longer be remembered in us, he said.
He said the conspiracy to kill his teacher was between the U.S. government, hypocrites among NOI ranks and members of the Arab world.
The Minister would come to recognize that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was physically alive and made that announcement in 1981 during the first Saviour’s Day celebration in his rebuilding effort.
“I made a declaration that took a lot of courage,” he explained, adding that many of his friends pulled away from him. “I offered the (Muhammad) family to exhume the body. If you can prove the body is Elijah Muhammad, I will stop teaching,” he offered.
“Thirty-nine Saviours’ Days after, here we are,” he said.
The Minister said the NOI has mosques or study groups in more than 130 cities, in the isles of the Caribbean, in counties of the United Kingdom, Africa and others.
“We have been opposed by the most powerful nation on earth, and don’t forget her little brother Israel,” he said.
“We had to grow from nothing to bring back the name and teaching of the greatest Black man to ever walk among us, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. To see the Nation of Islam come back is a miracle,” he said.
Min. Farrakhan challenged the audience to consider how his teacher, who only completed the third grade, was able to produce giants like Malcom X, Muhammad Ali and others who were respected leaders in their city.
Malcolm and Ali’s growth were aborted because they left their teacher, he said. They tried to abort me from my class, but I stayed with my teacher, he said.
The beaming Minister offered thanks to the First Lady of the Nation of Islam, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, his families and children and “to all no matter how small your contribution” to building the Nation of Islam.
He thanked Student Min. Troy Muhammad and the Believers of Mosque No. 1 in Detroit and the staff of Mosque Maryam in Chicago “for aiding us in Detroit to produce this marvelous crowd” that filled the arena and three overflow rooms.
He thanked the Executive Council of Laborers that “guides and governs” the Nation of Islam. “Why a council?” he asked? “Because power destroys those not made to handle it. Organizations run by personalities that are dictatorial … not any of you know enough to dictate that which brings about true freedom, justice and equality to the people you serve,” he said.
The price of a name and Kobe’s death
Min. Farrakhan discussed the trials of his grandson, Mustapha Farrakhan, Jr., who was denied access to a career in the NBA because of his name Farrakhan. He also discussed the death of basketball great Kobe Bryant.
A basketball standout at high school and a co-captain of the team at University of Virginia, the Minister said “we thought for sure (Mustapha) would make it to the NBA. The only thing wrong with him was he had a name that White folk were terrified over.”
He offered that those with the name could give it up, but they’d lose the respect of people. “You give it up for something you think is a privilege to curry some favor for something you desire to better your life. But I’m assured that my name will live down through the generations,” he said.
Upon hearing about the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and others killed in a fiery helicopter accident, Min. Farrakhan said he became quiet to ask God for the deeper meaning of the death in order to comfort Kobe’s family and those who loved him.
The Minister said by taking Kobe’s life in the way it happened stopped the world of sport and play. He said people don’t consider enough that God is the sovereign of our lives and that no soul dies without His permission.
We focus on the sadness of the tragedies and one minute you’re a believer, the next you have doubt and when anger sets in you become a disbeliever, he said.
“The lesson in Kobe’s death is God wanted us to focus on Kobe to see the sacrifice of Kobe as a teenager coming into the league from high school and his constant focus on improving his craft,” Min. Farrakhan explained. “I want us to think about ourselves because each of us is a creation of God in which he has deposited a treasure.
With the image of Kobe at the center of a constellation of basketball greats like Michael Jordan, Lebron James and other, the Minister said, “The duty you have is to exploit your gift, evaluate its value and use it to help others for the glory of God,” he said.
The outspoken leader also weighed in on the controversy around news personality Gayle King’s interview with WNBA star Lisa Leslie that probed alleged rape allegations against Kobe.
The Minister explained his love for Ms. King and her accomplishments, but she was used by the White media to besmirch Kobe’s memory.
He said she defended Charlie Rose, a White broadcaster accused of sexual harassment. Kobe did so much good in his life, couldn’t you find something good to say, he asked?
He defended rapper Snoop Dogg’s angry rebuke of Ms. King, adding that he doesn’t approve of any man calling a woman the “b” word, which Snoop Dogg did.
But “in his anger I defend him from the Holy Qur’an,” he said. “When somebody feels hurt and uses hurtful speech, it is justified.
“What you did was so unnecessary. He was hurt, and we are hurt,” he said. “You can regain your place with us but not by justifying what you did. Why don’t you just repent and say you’re sorry.”
